In this video, Aridjis reflects on the national lead problem, which affects over 70% of the country’s population, and recalls a speech he made 20 years ago at the request of Mexico’s President.

English translation

In May 1991, we had an emergency with the problem of lead in the blood of children, fetuses of women, and indeed it was putting many lives at risk, not only in the places where people worked, but also in residential areas. The lead sources were very common: the pottery vessels that were produced with leaded glazed, lead in pencils, lead in paint and also the inhaled lead from gasoline.

One day Dr. Palazuelos told me that the U.S. ambassador in Mexico in those years, Mr. Negroponte, had a big problem of lead poisoning in his children living in Mexico City and that Dr. Palazuelos had to treat them. This was a lead poisoning family secret of a U.S. ambassador. He was thinking of moving from Mexico to another country because of the lead problem.

The problem happened to children playing on swings. Their hands were impregnated with lead, or in schools with pencils that contained lead. Also house paint had lead. In those days it coincided that the President of the Republic at that time, Mr. Carlos Salinas de Gortari, asked me to give the speech for World Environment Day. I based my speech on the urgency for Mexico to legislate on lead, because it was a serious health problem and there was almost no awareness of the problem and there were no regulations and no actions were taken to regulate the presence of lead in various food products and in our daily lives. What especially worried us was that children were born with lead in their blood.

My speech was very sincere, very direct. I asked President Salinas to take steps to combat the problem of lead in Mexico. Some people there were alarmed when I touched the issue so directly, so urgently and so sincerely. They told me, “That’s no way to talk to the President, and I hope he does not become angry.” But I said, “No, he is not going to get mad because it is a real problem and a presidential action is needed”. ]

To our surprise, Carlos Salinas decided right then to take steps to reduce the amount of lead in various products in the country. He contacted Jaime Serra Puche, the Secretary of Commerce at the time to address the problem of lead. We gave Serra Puche a diagnose of the problem and he began to take action. That was one of the first cases in which the lead issue was raised along with importance of taking take action on the issue.

I believe that this movement on pottery (Barro Aprobado) is very important. All civil society should support it as well as the state governments, starting with the government of Morelos.

This can be a model for the rest of the country to take measures on lead. Lead remains a major problem, a major risk to human health and I also believe that if the lead problem is solved in pottery, it will be very beneficial for all those who produce pottery. All the ceramics will then not only be purchased/used in Mexico but also exported abroad.

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The Pure Earth Pollution blog puts the spotlight on one of the biggest, yet most underreported, global problems – toxic pollution. Over 100 million people are at risk in some of the world’s worst polluted places. - Read More